Will his wife take the rap for this one, too?
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has flown a controversial flag at his vacation home on the Jersey Shore, too, and the New York Times has photos to prove it.
Last summer, two years after an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists — was flown outside Alito’s home in Virginia, another controversial flag was displayed at his house in New Jersey, according to interviews and photographs obtained by the Times.
An “Appeal to Heaven” flag — also carried by insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — was flown on a flagpole outside Alito’s home on Long Beach Island in July and September of 2023. A Google Street View image from late August also shows the flag, according to the report.
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The flag-flying has raised serious questions about Alito’s objectivity in ruling on cases related to Jan. 6, including former President Donald Trump’s claim for presidential immunity from any crimes while in office. Trump is arguing against any legal exposure he might have in allegedly planning the insurrection.
Legal scholars and ethicists, and dozens of Democratic lawmakers have demanded that Alito recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6. Alito also was criticized by conservative politicians, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said that displaying the inverted flag was “not good judgment.”
During the period the Appeal to Heaven flag was seen flying at the justice’s beach house, a key Jan. 6 case came before the Supreme Court, challenging whether those who stormed the Capitol could be prosecuted for obstruction.
Also known as the Pine Tree flag, the “Appeal to Heaven” banner dates to the Revolutionary War, and has been resurrected as a symbol of support forTrump as part of the “Stop the Steal” campaign and for a push for a Christian-based country and a Christian ruling class.
Photographs obtained by The New York Times, along with accounts from a half-dozen neighbors and passers-by, show that the Appeal to Heaven flag was aloft at the Alito home.
The photographs, each taken independently, are from four different dates, the Times reports. It is not clear whether the flag was displayed continuously during those months or how long it was flown overall.
The Times said Alito declined to respond to questions about the beach house flag, including what it was intended to convey and how it comported with his obligations as a justice. The court also declined to respond.
Alito blamed his wife for the flag outside of his Virginia home, insisting it was flown in a neighborhood squabble.
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